FoFA amendments deliver new professionalism advantage

Thu 16th January 2014

The FPA has encouraged Australia’s professional financial planning community to seize the opportunity handed to it by Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos and rise above the noise of tired, product-centric arguments in the first weeks of the amended FoFA reforms.

The Government announced key FoFA amendments, welcomed by the FPA, on December 20 2013.

“We have seen a predictable reaction to these amendments from sectors of the superannuation product industry, using fear and misinformation to once again depict financial planners in a negative light,” said FPA CEO Mark Rantall.

“Our position on these regulatory matters is quite clear: consumer protection laws remain intact and at world’s best standard. Combined with this robust legal foundation, professional financial planners who have individually subscribed to a binding code of professional practice not only have nothing to fear, they have everything to gain in this new environment.”

Mr Rantall said this message, together with the benefits of attaining the advice of professional financial planning members of the FPA, forms a key part of the FPA’s message to all Australians during 2014.

“It’s called a professional dividend, and it works for those who deliver professional advice and the clients who receive it. We seek to remind all consumers that the FPA is Australia’s first choice for professional members who deliver high-quality, consumer protected financial advice. In other words, we are differentiated by our professional dividend.

“We also want to place on the record the simple fact that our profession operates in a world-leading environment governed by robust consumer protection laws and an unrivalled voluntary Professional Code of Practice that has its number one principle of acting in the client’s best interests.

“Where others stand for product, the FPA and its members stand for advice and advice outcomes that make a lasting positive difference in the lives of all Australians. We make no judgement on those who represent their case on the basis of their product ambitions,” Mr Rantall said.

CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and are certification marks owned outside the US by the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd (FPSB). Financial Planning Association of Australia Limited is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Australia, through agreement with the FPSB.